Bevilacqua.us

My Grandfather, 93 years old, passed away October 25th of 2014. He was born October 4th, 1921 in the great city of Philadelphia to Italian immigrant parents. He would go on to marry my Grandmother, Rita Bevilacqua (née Anastasi). They would go on to have two sons and a daughter. The middle son being my father David Bevilacqua. I honestly know very little about my Grandfather as he was an extremely reserved man who had an incredibly difficult time in health over his lifespan. What I do know is what he would tell me in story from time to time.

Let’s start in my earliest memories.

My Grandfather loved seafood. I remember a time as a child in Mystic Island, New Jersey at their summer home when he would take me out to retrieve fresh clams. Back at the house, he would stand over the kitchen sink and skillfully cut open a live clam, cut it free, wash it, put some Tobasco™ sauce on it and eat it raw. He would do the same for me only with ketchup as I wasn’t a fan of the spice just yet. I think we ate half that bushel that day.

To this day, I attribute my absurdly well trained palette of all foods to him. Sashimi is always on my regular menu. And how else would I be able to utterly enjoy raw Uni, Ika, Tuna and Roe without that experience he gifted me.

He once took me to work with him when I was a child. The memory is very vague, but I remember seeing him drive a five speed and how he drove it, changing gears, dealing with Philly traffic. It was masterful. It was the first time I’ve ever seen anyone do this. It amazed me at the skill and precision it took to get that two door Datsun to manipulate those crazy Philadelphia roads in traffic.

Today I drive a six speed Jeep. I expect to drive standards until I no longer can.

Again, a tribute to my Grandfather.

My Great Grandfather, my Grandfather, my Uncle and Father helped build the warehouse that is still across from where I grew up. Next to the warehouse was where my Grandmother and Grandfather brought up my Uncle, Father and Aunt. My Grandparents ultimately sold the house and the warehouse to the Widman family and moved to Quakertown.

The Widman’s had two Grandsons. Avi Freedman and Noam Freedman. Noam was a classmate of mine in High School. Avi went and started the first T3 connected dial-up ISP in this warehouse. It was called netaxs.com – and being the curious youth, I would visit regularly, learn a thing or two and then use my dial-up account to start experimenting on a true UNIX-based system.

I am one of the most experienced UNIX system administrators and programers at Time Warner Cable.

I remember the last true time I spent with him alone. It was at their house at Brady Park in Upstate New York, Lake Hinkley. We sat together by the camp fire in the morning eating shelled sunflower seeds. He, of course, was an expert at eating these. This comes hand in hand with him being a lifetime baseball fanatic of the Philadelphia Phillies.

We sat and I asked him about his family. Of how he was born in Philly. I remember him telling me that his Father came to America, South Philly, and his Father’s Brother, went to South America, most likely Brazil. Not much more was said than that. I spent a lot of time afterwards trying to track down Bevilacqua’s in Brazil. Spoke with a few of them as I couldn’t speak Portuguese. And I learned that Bevilacqua may seem like a unique name. But it’s not. It’s everywhere.

And until you know a Bevilacqua, you might never notice that.

My Grandmother, 94 years old, passed away yesterday morning. She’ll be buried at Holy Sepulchre in North Philadelphia. She was born December 2nd, 1919 in the great city of Philadelphia to Italian immigrant parents Giovanna and Dominico Anastasi. In 1945, she would marry Samuel Bevilacqua, my Grandfather. They would go on to have two sons and a daughter. The middle son being my father David Bevilacqua.

My Grandmother was the first person I knew who embraced Philadelphia for the great things it contained almost hidden within itself. Say what you will, I think she was a city girl at heart. Confident and unafraid. As a child, from time to time, she would take me via train to the Philadelphia Orchestra. I remember the first time seeing 30th Street Station as we stepped off the train onto the platform. What magnificence. It was almost like South Philly was her second home. She knew exactly where, when and how to get somewhere without hesitation or confusion. A couple of times we sat in the coveted Academy of Music booth seats overlooking the stage. As a young boy this was quite the spectacle and would ultimately leave such an impression that my musical tastes would be altered in favor of harmonic ambience over all other music for the remainder of my life.

I remember the joy on her face the day she found out I was accepted into the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Boy’s Choir. How that year I would sing at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul for the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass. Looking back now, I know the struggles and difficulties throughout that period I only endured because I knew that if anyone was listening to me other than my parents, it was her. It made me proud for the first time I can remember in my life to make her proud. Not to mention it sounded amazing singing in front of a over-brimming mass.

The only other times I’ve seen her as happy were on those Christmas Eves after all of the work of the traditional seven fish meal was done and the fruit, nuts and liquors were on the table. She would hum gently to the ever-present symphony playing from the living room stereo that she somehow had playing at always, just the right volume. I never understood how she managed it. And never missed an opportunity to sit on the ‘listening couch’ and enjoy a break from being in the present to being with the music.

If I have one regret, it is that I wish I could have let her know how important these times we spent together were. And how much they have shaped my life to what it is today. I always have music playing in my home. And it’s always ambient soundscapes that I attempt to craft into perfectly balanced substance and volume. It’s a necessity. It’s also a ‘hat’s off’ to a great woman who took the time to take a chance and open my eyes and ears long before I could fully understand the true beauty of great music.

http://mayfuneralhome.frontrunnerpro.com/runtime/125314/runtime.php?SiteId=125314&NavigatorId=422384&viewOpt=dpaneOnly&ItemId=1947965&op=tributeMemorialCandles

Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States is something everyone should own in their video library. It’s a unique view that is, sometimes, purely hindsight. Yet written in a way that shows the path that lead so many of us here to there in a way no such History professor ever could.

WiKi

Can be seen on Google Play

SomaFM is to Google what streaming audio is to service applications. I’ve been listening to their stations for over a decade now and they never cease to impress me with their new channels, holiday specials and now, a live performance from Steve Roach!?! Wow. Seriously, there is no other audio streaming group on the planet that has been able to pull that one off. And wow, did they. I remember watching the amount of active, unique users listening grow to something around 2,500 while listening to the original broadcast. Impressive? For an ambient show? Impressive for any show, especially an ambient show. Clearly, one of the greatest achievements of any ambient streaming group in history.

So congrats SomaFM. You absolutely earned my donation this time around. And I look forward to many new water bottles arriving at my door in the future. Keep up the great work!

Poor man’s UPS power outage monitor:

 
#!/bin/bash
# Ping the Wifi router which will turn 
# off during a power outage - if down, shutdown the server
# Run from root crontab every 5 minutes
# */5 * * * * /root/bin/powerdown.sh
 
is_alive_ping()
{
	ping -c 1 $1 > /dev/null
	[ $? -eq 0 ] && exit || /sbin/init 0
}
 
 
for i in 10.0.1.1
	do
	is_alive_ping $i
done

Disable screen blanking and start X and synergy on boot:

Put this into /etc/rc.local:

 
echo -e '\033[9;0]\033[14;0]' > /dev/console
su - michael -c startx &

Put this into your user’s .xsession:

xset s off
xset s noblank
/usr/bin/synergyc Michaels-MacBook-Pro.local &
exec fluxbox

Make sure you have /etc/hosts setup to resolve the hostname above and preferably, a reservation in your router’s DHCPd for that host as well.

I’m an avid collector of electronic and ambient music. In particular, I try to get my hands on as many Steve Roach releases as I can afford. Over the years, I’ve collected some truly ground breaking albums from Roach’s discography including solo works and collaborations with other ingenious artists. I’m sure there are a few I’ve missed so if you feel I would benefit from your suggestion, feel free to email me.

This is my list of Essential Steve Roach releases that I could not live without that were chosen out of my personal library:

– Structures from Silence
– Quiet Music 1, 2 and 3
– Dreamtime Return
– World’s Edge (disc two, To the threshold of silence)
– Kiva
– Well of Souls
– Cavern of Sirens
– Ascension of Shadows
– Light Fantastic
– Arc of Passion
– Low Volume Music
– Immersion 1, 2, 3, and 4

Of course, there are many other single pieces that exist on other albums that I did not list here. Examples are:

– The Serpent’s Lair – Ochua
– Artifacts – Your own eyes
– Now – Cloud Motion
– Empetus – The Memory

…and so many others.